KKR won the toss and invited Rohit Sharma’s MI to bat first. Former KKR man Suryakumar Yadav opened the batting for MI along with Evin Lewis. MI stood at 24/0 after 3 overs.
Always the go-to man whenever there’s need for a breakthrough, Sunil Narine came to bowl the fourth over. Bowled perfectly well throughout the over trying multiple variations, apart from last delivery which added another four runs in MI’s kitty. Yadav smashed two consecutive boundaries but MI lost Lewis through an unlucky dismissal, who got caught at short third man. MI were 47/1 after the powerplay.
The pressure was mounting and Suryakumar Yadav fell prey to it losing his wicket while trying a pull shot. MI was struggling at 62/2 after 9 overs.
10th over started with two new batsmen at the crease, Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma.
Ishan Kishan’s four and Sixes got up MI and MI was 97/2 after 12 overs.
A partnership was building up where Kishan held the larger chunk of runs. Kuldeep Yadav failed to stop the run flow and ended a rather expensive over giving away 25 runs. MI was cruising and Ishan after facing a dot delivered yet another six. But, lack of experience soon showed up and Ishan was caught just inches inside the boundary while going for another six. Hardik Pandya was the new man in. KKR got the necessary breakthrough. MI was 145/3 after 15 overs.
KKR had the opportunity to make a comeback. Both Rohit and Hardik haven’t been in the best of forms throughout this VIVO IPL 2018.
Prasidh took the crucial wicket of Sharma who would’ve loved to end the MI’s innings on a high. Krunal Pandya was the next man in. Ben Cutting continued with the assault in the 20th over and hit two consecutive sixes and a boundary bringing in the 200 runs. However, Krunal Pandya ended Mumbai’s inning with a six at long-on. Mumbai Indians posted a total of 210/6 in their allowed quota of 20 overs. KKR needed to score at a required run rate of more than 10.50 to win the match.
Dinesh Kartik was run out in the 1st ball of the 10th over by Hardik, and Rana was caught by Cutting on the 2nd ball. The innings of KKR continued to tumble as the required run-rate breached 14.07 and only 5 runs came from the over. Rinku played a loose shot to Bumrah’s back of length delivery and Kishan caught him behind the wickets. Another good over for MI as only 5 runs came from the 11th over with a wicket. Curran hit a boundary in the 12th over as the required runrate reached 16.2. KKR were 82 for 7 by the end of 12th over. They were loosing wickets and ended up at he score of 108 All-out.
Now MI won the match by 102 runs.
That was a huge match for MI. Huge runs, huge wickets and huge difference. MI have overtook KKR in the points table and are on 4th now.
Mumbai is back in the IPL.
Ankit Vaishnav
